The present invention relates generally to the field of athletic training equipment, and more particularly, to equipment used by athletes to practice arm swing technique.
Developing improved hand-eye coordination and hitting techniques are athletic skills that improve with practice. Conventional practice methods may include use of pitching machines for baseball and tennis, where a ball is consistently projected or catapulted towards a stationary target near a hitter. Accuracy limitations inherent to such machines often translate into an inability to consistently deliver a ball in a desired, repeatable position. Such repetition may be desirable where a hitter and/or trainer wishes to focus a practice session on particular trouble areas. While a setting and orientation of a conventional machine may remain constant, the projected ball may nonetheless arrive at unpredictable heights, speed and relative horizontal position with respect to the hitter. Such imprecision can prevent a hitter maximizing benefits of practice and from realizing development that might otherwise be achieved with more accurate, repeatable ball placement. While the issue of repeatability may seem less critical in the context of a boxer striking a heavy bag, the bag will similarly fail to achieve focused positioning between consecutive punches that accurately reflects competitive and ideal training conditions.
Such imprecise presentation of a ball or other target often fails to realistically simulate game conditions, where athletes routinely face targets arriving at different heights, speeds and arm lengths. Moreover, batting cages and netted facilities typically used in conjunction with such machines often preclude definitive feedback on the speed, distance and trajectory that would be traveled by a batted ball but for the cage barrier. The absence of such feedback can detract from player gratification, as well as complicate efforts to gauge or measure individual improvement. Another drawback to such machines and associated structures concerns their relatively large space requirements, which can burden some athletic, arcade and other recreational facilities.
Consequently, what is needed is an improved manner of practicing, accommodating and evaluating swing techniques in a manner that more realistically simulates game conditions.
The invention addresses these and other problems associated with the prior art by providing in one respect an improved mechanism for measuring and analyzing forces incident on a target. A support coupled to the target may be configured to move the target into a number of different and repeatable initial positions. Thus, the target may be selectively or randomly presented to a user in any of the initial positions. The breadth of initial positions may correspond to locations where a user is likely to encounter a target during real game conditions. In this manner, the plurality of initial positions may benefit users desiring to practice and/or test their skills against a broad range of initial positions. As such, the range may translate into more comprehensive and realistic training of swing technique.
In some embodiments, initial positions may be collectively stored into xe2x80x9cprofiles.xe2x80x9d A stored profile may include coordinate and other data corresponding to suitable initial positions. Exemplary profiles may be either generic or customized for a particular user or application. Thus, a sequence of initial positions may be preprogrammed to enhance testing, skill development and user satisfaction as appropriate for a given training session.
In some embodiments, a controller may execute program code configured to actuate the support and target according the stored profile. More particularly, the controller may initiate movement of the target to the initial position as prescribed by the profile. The target may remain at the initial position until either the user contacts the target, or in some cases, until the expiration of a preset time increment. In one respect, suitable time increments may be configured to test and/or develop user reaction time. Another or the same embodiment may actuate the target continuously as it travels through a set or sequence of virtual coordinates corresponding to the initial position. The target may subsequently be presented to the user in a next occurring initial position as dictated by the profile.
In some embodiments, a sensor may be responsive to a force applied to the target. For this purpose, the force sensor may be embedded within or otherwise coupled to the target in order to detect and communicate measured force data to the controller. The controller may process the measured force data using recalled tables, kinematic equations and/or other algorithms to arrive at one or more parameters relating to the force incident on the target. The parameter may be useful in evaluating swing technique.
To this end, the parameter may be displayed to a user in a manner that both facilitates ready analysis and encourages further participation. Thus, by virtue of the foregoing there is provided an improved method, apparatus and program product for measuring and analyzing forces incident on a target in a manner that addresses above-identified shortcomings of known systems. These and other objects and advantages of the present invention shall be made apparent from the accompanying drawings and the description thereof.